Jail for reporting on women in Mangalore, Mogadishu

Today marks International Women's Day. Hashtags like #IWD
and #InternationalWomensDay have been trending on Twitter. Among the twitterati
who voiced their support for women's rights was Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh. He tweeted:

PM: Let me reiterate in this House the commitment of our govt. to ensuring the dignity, safety and security of every woman of this country.

It seems, then, that India's government is not committed to
such changes in society to advance the status of women--why else would
28-year-old journalist Naveen Soorinje be jailed
for reporting an assault on women?

In July, Soorinje--who has a track record of exposing attacks
by self-appointed moral police of India's Hindu right--had been tipped off that a group of men belonging
to a Hindu nationalist group were about to attack a local birthday party where
young men and women had gathered. Upon arriving, Soorinje said he attempted to
report the attack to the police, but unable to reach them, he did the only
thing he could do: cover it. He and his cameraman caught the men chasing,
slapping, and groping teenaged women. The 43 attackers who were charged in the
case were identified on the basis of Soorinje's footage, New Delhi-based
investigative magazine Tehelka reported.

Instead of heralding him as a hero for bringing the attack
to national attention, the state has grouped Soorinje with the very attackers
he exposed. Four months have passed and Soorinje remains imprisoned.

Meanwhile, an ocean away, journalist Abdiaziz Abdinuur is
imprisoned on charges of insulting
the state after his January 8 interview with a woman who said she had been
raped by Somali forces late last year. This week, his conviction was upheld
by an appellate court in Mogadishu and his one-year prison sentence was reduced
to still-unacceptable six months. In January, the U.N. Special Representative
of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab
Hawa Bangura, condemned Abdinuur's arrest, saying, "Allegations of rape
should be met with objective investigations by the proper authorities, not
detention for victims who come forward or arrest for journalists who report on
such crimes."

From Mangalore to Mogadishu, brave journalists--men and
women--report on gender-based violence and other issues concerning women's
rights. Silencing them by arrests, jail, and other forms of intimidation is a
disservice to women's rights, and to everyone's right to be informed.

Sumit Galhotra is the research associate for CPJ's Asia program. He served as CPJ's inaugural Steiger Fellow and has worked for CNN International, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch. He has reported from London, India, and Israel and the Occupied Territories, and specializes in human rights and South Asia.